Anthroponymy and Toponymy in Memorial Epigraphy of Podlasie

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of personal and place names on the tombstones of necropolises surveyed during a three-year fieldwork in Podlasie province (Hajnówka region), the area of high concentration of Orthodox East Slavic population. Apart from reflecting local dialect features specific to the East Slavic language situation on the Polish-East Slavic borderland, these epigraphic inscriptions made in Cyrillic are also a confessional marker that is highly relevant to the regional Orthodox population’s self-identification. Tombstone inscriptions evidence to the overlapping of Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian (Church Slavonic), and Polish language contexts. Graphics (Cyrillic) and spelling features of different types of tombstone onyms not only give a picture of ethno-confessional and ethno-linguistic contacts, but also reflect live pronunciation captured in writing. Regarding personal name as a core component of the epitaph and analyzing specific examples, the authors address the following questions: 1) what do graphics and spelling convey in each particular case — the sound form of a name or toponym, writing traditions, focus on a particular spelling norm? 2) what is the reason for the variability in the spelling of the same name, surname, toponym? 3) can we trace the general trends in personal and place names rendering in the local tradition under study? 4) what effect does the Polish (state) language have in the texts that do not aim to comply with Belarusian, Ukrainian or Russian literary spelling norm? In the epigraphy of the studied region, there is a clear preference for using different spelling systems (not necessarily consistent), as reflected in the use of the letters и, ы, i in different combinations. Hence, the Polish spelling sometimes affects the Cyrillic transliteration of some names and surnames.